Physical properties of surfaces are extremely important for initiation and nucleation of crystal
growth, including nanowires. In recent years, fluctuations in surface characteristics have
often been related to unreproducible growth of GaAs nanowires on Si by the Ga-assisted
method. We report on a systematic study of the occurrence of GaAs nanowire growth on
silicon by the Ga-assisted method for different kinds of silicon oxides: native, thermal and
hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ). We find that success in achieving nanowires and the …